Rather than immediately returning to the titular agents as they were kidnapped, SHIELD offers a look at the operation that led to their new predicament.

The mysterious, bald-headed assailant is shown at his home at first, having a leisurely swim in his pool. All seems fine — until he peels off his skin in the bathroom and freshens up his body suit. (His true form is only depicted in silhouette behind an opaque shadow door.

The man drives off to an airplane hangar, where he is presented with his choice of undercover van decal and a group of mercs waiting for him in the vehicle. They drive off to the restaurant, with chatty guards standing watch outside.

After the crew is carted off — well, except for one of them (we find out later that it’s Fitz) — to a mysterious darkened room, they're presented with a strange monolith, which melts into a liquid substance and sends the gang seemingly into space.

Coulson is the first shown in this new situation — time has seemingly slowed to a halt as the air is sucked out of the room around him into the recesses of space. Time seems to restart, and after a blast door saves him from flying into space, Coulson finds himself with two mysterious men. They know who he is, but he has never seen them — and he doesn’t get to know one for long. A mysterious “roach” alien sucks him out into the hallway, and just as Virgil, the other man, is about to fill him in on the situation. Mack shows up to knock out the poor guy.

Eventually, the crew appears on this space outpost. Yo-Yo and Simmons, who has experience with space monoliths, appear in the hallway outside their room, while May finds her leg caught in a metal bar in another room. She doesn’t reunite with the gang just yet, but the other four come together and take stock of their situation.

(Assuming they’re in space, Mack jokes that makes sense because “that’s the one thing we haven’t done yet” in one of many self-knowing nods. The Inhumans and S.W.O.R.D. — specifically, this version of SHIELD not having a space division they know of — are also alluded to in the scene.)

Virgil eventually wakes up to tell the crew he’s been studying for years, and he apparently knows how Fitz is feeling while absent. Unfortunately, Virgil has little opportunity to fill them in on the situation aside from that they’re meant to save all of humanity before a roach kills him and then chases the group down.

The fast, bug-like alien chases them down a hallway and almost kills them, but Skye appears and uses her powers to rescue them.

What fate awaits the group is unknown, with the clip instead ending with a focus on May. A mysterious man in a mask floats in from space and makes his way onto the station, which is littered with dead bodies. He takes one of those bodies into May’s room, where she tries to hide as he cuts off a strange black circular object off a corpse’s forearm. He leaves, and May tries to escape herself, only for the man to appear and tell May he’s been looking for her.

The opening is equal parts funny and thrilling, with the alien threat still giving Coulson plenty of time for one-liners. A self-referential set of jokes never saps the opening of its tension, delivering a new, fascinating obstacle for the team. And the wordless opening scene following their attacker is amusingly directed and a joy to watch, even despite knowing what’s coming.